Ford Pays $27 Million For Faulty Seat Design In Escort Accident.

Saw this article in our local paper today, The Daily Southtown. March
17, 2005
Ford, Mazda owe $27 Million for faulty seat design that contributed to

the death of a South Holland ( IL. ) man.
by Chris Hack
staff writer
A Cook County jury has awarded $27 million to the family of a South
Holland man killed in a violent rear end collision five years ago.
Jurors deliberated about three hours before handing up the judgement
against Ford Motor Company and Mazda Motor Company, the two
companies that designed and built the 1996 Ford Escort LX that James
Mikolajczyk was driving in February 2000.
The lawsuit blamed the Escorts " Yielding" front seat design as a cause
of death Mikolajaczyk's death. The Escort was stopped at red light when
it was rear ended by a Cadillac that was later determined to be doing 60
mph.
According to the plaintiff's attorney Bruce Pfaff, the force of the
impact bent the driver's seat backward about 60 degrees, allowing
Mikolajczyk to slide out from under his seat belt and suffer a fatal
injury when he slammed head first into the rear portion of the passenger
compartment.
Mikolajczyk's 10 year old daughter, who was sitting in the back seat of
the Escort survived the crash because of the rigidity of that seat,
Pfaff said.
Ford engineers have long maintained that front seats were designed to
bend backward in crashes in order to minimize neck injuries and
whiplash in the low speed rear end crashes that are much more common
than high speed one that left Mikolajczyk dead.
Attorneys for the automakers noted during the trial the Escorts front
seat met government safety standards. But Pfaff said test done on other
cars, including those made by BMW and Mercedes Benz have shown that more
rigid front seats are equally safe in low speed crashes and provide
superior protection in high speed rear end collisions.
ALthough Ford has strengthened the front seats in a few of its models,
Pfaff said the yielding seat design still is widely used by the
carmaker.
SIx years ago Paff's firm won a $14 million judgement in a similar
lawsuit on behalf of a woman killed in a Ford Explorer in Hammond,
Indiana.
We would love it if Ford Motor Co would wake up ad change their seats,
Pfaff said Wednesday.
The deceased worked as a physicians assistant at the University Of
Chicago Hospital he never regained consciousness after the accident and
died three days later. He was 46.
The driver of the Cadillac, William Timberlake of Morgan Park, was
convicted of drunk driving and reckless homicide and sentenced to six
years in prison. Timberlake, 58 is expected to be paroled in September.

Jury award =/= total amount of settlement.
I recall a Jury in some southern state awarding $500 Billion to
someone at one point (or some other insane amount) totally out of line
with ability to pay. What finally gets paid after the appeals are run
are often much more reasonable.
My take is anyone that gets in an Escort has already waived any
protection they might have had.
Be interesting to see what the final payment is.
Time to sell my Olds & buy a DHS ;-)

This is more of those damn liberals influence here. Their philosophu of not
taking responsibility for anything, adn carrying it over to putting the
blame anywhere except where it belongs. There is no blame or fault to be
found of FoMoCo unless FoMoCo stated that a driver in an Escort would have a
100% change of surviving being rear-ended by a Cadillac (most likely 2 tons
or more) at 60 MPH. Shit happens, that's life. This $27 million should be
fined to the driver of the Cadillac, but of course some DUI isn't going to
have that kind of money so the liberal ass holes go and sue FoMoCo and some
bassackward moronic jury awards them the money. It's insane!
Cory

not
a
tons
some
No, it's not. This is a pretty cut and dried case. Ford uses thinner steel
in the
front seats to save money. Then they manufacture an excuse like "our weaker
front seats reduce whiplash in low-speed accidents" even though this is not
bourne out by testing. And it is also not an excuse accepted by other
automakers
either, as they don't do the same things with their seats.
I got news for you. Juries are getting tired of these kinds of shenanigans
and your
going to see more of these punative damages. Automakers and other product
makers USED to know years ago that government minumims were guidelines only
and a decent manufacturer was supposed to make their products safer than
government
minimums. Then they all decided to cut costs and build to the government
minimums
and pretend these were adequate.
Ted

have
be
to
steel
weaker
not
shenanigans
only
No one made that man who died buy a Ford Escort. He could have chosen any
other car in the world. There are plenty of model to choose from. Hell,
technically he didn't even have to drive. Every time you get in a car you
are accepting the risk that you may be killed or injured. Accidents happen,
there are a lot of dumb people out there with a me first f**k you attitude
which is very dangerous. It's not Ford's fault this man died. It is the
fault of the selfish a-hole who rear-ended him. Ford builds a car. The
Escort is an economy car, it is about as econo-box as you can get (except
perhaps a Geo Metro). No one in their right mind purchases a car like that
because they expect it to keep them safe when being rear-ended at 60 MPH by
a vehicle that weighs at least twice as much.
You have the same piss-poor liberal attitude of shifting the blame anywhere
from where it belongs. You also have the same liberal problem of trying to
'fix' problems anywhere but at the source. You simply try to fix the
symptoms or affects of a problem, not the problem itself. That's alright,
most liberals do that, they are dumb as bricks and don't know any better.
Much of it comes from growing up with liberal parents and relatives.
Cory

of
the
be
going
product
government
happen,
by
anywhere
Aw, I would say it's more the trial lawyers. Sue anybody with deep
pockets. Ford has a lot more money than the Caddy driver. Next they start
going after Harley (and other motorcycle makers) for building a vehicle that
is unsafe at any speed.
Local lawyer tried to sue GM for making an unsafe truck. The driver lost
control and hit a pole. The first witness testified that the driver was
totally drunk and it went downhill from there on. The judge fined the
lawyer.

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